🌑 New Moon 2026
New Moon in Cancer
A tender emotional reset during Mercury retrograde — return to your roots, tend your inner world, and plant seeds at home.
What This New Moon Brings
The Cancer New Moon on July 14 at 21°58' is the most emotionally intimate lunation of 2026. Cancer — ruled by the Moon itself — is the zodiac's great nurturer, protector, and memory keeper. When the New Moon falls in its home sign, the invitation isn't to conquer new territory but to come home to yourself. With Mercury retrograde active in the background, the pull inward is even stronger.
Mercury retrograde during a Cancer New Moon creates a specific emotional atmosphere: you're not just thinking about the past, you're feeling it. Old memories surface with unusual vividness. The house you grew up in, the meals that meant love, the family dynamics that shaped you — all of it becomes present and palpable. This isn't nostalgia for its own sake. It's the universe offering you a chance to tend the roots of who you are before the next season of growth demands something from you.
Set intentions that honor your emotional needs without apology. In a culture that rewards productivity and forward motion, this New Moon is a radical act of inner attention. What does your heart actually need? Where do you feel safe — and where do you need to create safety? What family patterns are you ready to heal, and which traditions do you want to carry forward? Cancer asks these questions with a cup of tea in hand and all the time in the world to listen to the answer.
Astrological Analysis
This New Moon calls us to renew our personal life- connection with parents, family members, home and property. We can make
some new changes in these areas of life, but also reconsider old situations there, bring them up to discussion and possibly revision-
this is because Mercury retrograde is also conjunct the New Moon.
So old topics are being addressed and new directions are shaping especially in regards to more intimate and personal matters.
We will definitely feel more emotional on this new Moon, keeping one eye at the past and one in the future, we are called to use the
past in a wise way so we can transition to the future.
Reconnection with friends or family you have not seen for a bit, can lead to new possibilities.
Active Retrogrades During This New Moon
How It Affects Your Sign
Select your Sun, Moon, or Rising sign for a personalized reading.
Aries
Your 4th house of home and family is activated by this deeply emotional New Moon. The warrior is asked to put down the sword and pick up a watering can. Set intentions around your living situation, family relationships, or creating a home that genuinely nurtures you. Mercury retrograde suggests a family conversation needs revisiting — this time with more heart and less heat.
Taurus
The 3rd house of communication gets Cancer's emotional intelligence. Your words carry unusual tenderness right now — use that. Set intentions around heartfelt communication, journaling about feelings you normally keep practical, or reconnecting with siblings and childhood friends. Mercury retrograde may bring an old message back into relevance.
Gemini
Your 2nd house of income and self-worth receives Cancer's nurturing touch. How you make money is inseparable from how you feel about yourself. Set intentions around building financial security that creates emotional peace, not just numerical growth. Mercury retrograde in the background says an old income source or financial idea deserves a second look.
Cancer
This is YOUR New Moon — the most powerful personal reset point of your year. In your 1st house of identity, you have the Moon's full blessing to redefine who you are on your own emotional terms. Set intentions around self-care, personal boundaries, how you present yourself to the world, and what you need to feel whole. Mercury retrograde adds depth: the self you're becoming may draw from the self you used to be.
Leo
The 12th house of the subconscious and spiritual practice is activated. This New Moon pulls you into deeper waters than you usually swim. Set intentions around emotional healing, psychotherapy, dream work, or confronting the vulnerable parts of yourself that live behind the confident exterior. The inner child needs attention — yours has probably been waiting awhile.
Virgo
Your 11th house of community and friendship receives Cancer's warmth. Set intentions around friendships that feel like family — the chosen bonds that sustain you. Group activities should nourish, not deplete. Mercury retrograde may reconnect you with a friend from the past who once felt like a sibling. Let them back in if it feels right.
Libra
The 10th house of career gets an emotional audit. How does your professional life make you feel? Not what it looks like to others — how it actually feels. Set intentions around career paths that honor your emotional intelligence, not just your aesthetic sensibility. Mercury retrograde may revisit a professional relationship that ended without closure.
Scorpio
Your 9th house of beliefs and expansion is softened by Cancer's water. This New Moon invites you to explore your spiritual beliefs with more tenderness and less intensity. Set intentions around emotional wisdom — learning from feeling, not just from investigation. A retreat, a return to ancestral spiritual practices, or a journey to a place that felt like home is deeply supported.
Sagittarius
The 8th house of transformation and shared resources receives Cancer's protective energy. Financial partnerships benefit from more emotional honesty. Set intentions around creating security in shared ventures and being vulnerable about what you actually need from intimate bonds. Emotional courage — different from your usual adventurous courage — is what this moment requires.
Capricorn
This New Moon opposes your sign, activating your 7th house of partnerships. Cancer asks you to feel more in relationships and control less. Set intentions around emotional availability, nurturing your partner (or being nurtured), and allowing relationships to be messy, tender, and real. Mercury retrograde may bring a past relationship dynamic back for review — this time, lead with your heart.
Aquarius
Your 6th house of daily routine and health is bathed in Cancer's nurturing light. Set intentions around health practices rooted in self-care rather than self-optimization. Cook meals from scratch. Take baths instead of showers. Sleep more. Move your body in ways that feel comforting, not punishing. This New Moon says wellness begins with tenderness toward the body you already have.
Pisces
The 5th house of creativity, romance, and joy is beautifully activated by your fellow water sign. Emotional creativity flows like a river right now — write the poem, paint the feeling, sing the song that lives in your chest. Set intentions around artistic expression that comes from genuine feeling, and romantic connections that make you feel safe. Joy and vulnerability are the same doorway.
Intention Setting
New Moons are for planting seeds. Set intentions with these practices.
Ancestral Kitchen Ritual
Cook a meal that connects you to your lineage — your grandmother's recipe, your culture's comfort food, or the dish that means "home" to you. As you prepare it, think about the hands that made this food before yours. Eat slowly and with intention. Set your New Moon wish while the kitchen still smells like history. Cancer's magic lives in the kitchen.
Inner Child Letter
Write a letter to yourself at age seven. Tell that child what you wish someone had told you — that they're safe, that they're enough, that the hard things will make them strong. Then write a letter FROM your seven-year-old self to present-day you. What does your inner child need that your adult self has been too busy to provide? That need is your New Moon intention.
Moon Water Blessing
Fill a clear glass with clean water and hold it close to your heart. Cancer is ruled by the Moon, and water is its element. Whisper your most heartfelt intention into the water — what you need to feel safe, loved, and emotionally whole. Place the glass on your windowsill overnight. In the morning, drink the water mindfully, internalizing your intention.
Home Sanctuary Setting
Choose one room or corner of your home and transform it into a sacred space. Clean it thoroughly, add something soft, something living (a plant), and something meaningful (a photo, a keepsake). Sit in this space and set your intention for what home will mean to you going forward. Cancer says your external environment should mirror your internal sense of safety.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Mercury retrograde affect the Cancer New Moon?
Mercury retrograde during the Cancer New Moon amplifies the already reflective quality of this lunation. Expect heightened nostalgia, resurfacing memories, and a strong pull to revisit family dynamics and past emotional patterns. Communication may be tender or muddled — double-check plans and be patient with misunderstandings. The retrograde makes this New Moon especially powerful for healing intentions rooted in the past.
Is it okay to set intentions during Mercury retrograde?
Absolutely. While Mercury retrograde advises caution with contracts, launches, and technology, it does not prevent intention-setting. In fact, intentions focused on revisiting, healing, reconnecting, and restoring are especially aligned with retrograde energy. The Cancer New Moon's themes of home, family, and emotional renewal pair beautifully with Mercury retrograde's invitation to look back before moving forward.
What house does the Cancer New Moon activate in my chart?
Cancer rules a different house for each rising sign. To find which area of your life is most affected, look up where Cancer falls in your birth chart using your rising sign (also called your ascendant). The house Cancer occupies is where this New Moon plants its emotional seeds. If you don't know your rising sign, checking your Sun sign gives a general — though less precise — picture.
Why is the Cancer New Moon considered so emotional?
Cancer is ruled by the Moon — the celestial body most associated with emotions, instincts, and our inner world. When the New Moon occurs in Cancer, the lunar energy is doubled: the Moon is in its home sign, operating at full emotional capacity. Add Mercury retrograde's tendency to dredge up the past, and you have a lunation that prioritizes feeling over thinking. This is by design — some seeds can only be planted with the heart.
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